I get annoyed by thoughtless and uncreative use of certain overused terms/statements in corporate settings. Below are some that are so annoying, they distract me from the conversation. What are some that annoy you?

  • Peel back the layers of an onion
  • Incentivize
  • Let’s table that so we can circle back to it later
  • We’ll out that on the backburner
  • Let’s not reinvent the wheel
  • They just started a new project, so their plate’s full and might not have the bandwidth for an additional something else.
  • Grab the low-hanging fruit
  • That’s a game changer
  • The ball’s in their court. If you don’t hear from them soon, send them an email to touch base.
  • I sent it up the food chain, so it’s out of my hands.
  • Let’s give it 110%
  • There are lots of moving parts
  • We need to have an aha moment
  • At the end of the day, what matters are the key takeaways
  • Let’s engage in the best practices
  • They’re working on it as we speak
  • It’s a controversial approach, so we might get some flak for that.
  • So-and-so is not a people person